KPL - Karnataka Premier League- All Padded Up

Critics of IPL! In your faces!!

Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) launched the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), a T20 'inter-district' tournament, set to kick off on September 12, on the lines of IPL!

At Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, KSCA made the announcement on KPL, and the following few basic rules took shape then!

No of teams:

There would be bidding on the 10 district zones of Karnataka, the highest 8 of which will participate in the tournament!

This means any 8 of the following zones could be a part of KPL: Mysore, Mangalore, Dharwad, Raichur, Tumkur, Shimoga, Bellary, Gulbarga, Belgaum and Bangalore!

No of matches:

It has been proposed to have a total of 31 matches in the KPL, 28 at the league level, 2 semis, one final!

Each team will play each other, once, and then proceed to the semis! All matches are to be played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium!

Players:

KSCA has decided to make available a pool of 40 top players from across the state to be divided into eight teams through an auction, five per team. KSCA allows another 7 players to be picked by the franchisee from a list provided by them. Each team, in addition to all this, must have 2 players who are domiciled in their franchise zone and/or catchment area.

The players will be up for auction on August 8!

'Foriegn' Players:

Each franchisee is permitted to include 3 players from any other region or part of India, other than the state of Karnataka, with no geographical relevance.

Thus, each franchisee will have a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 20 players in their squad.

It was announced that the minimum bid amount per franchise will be Rs 20 lakh, with the player fee capped at Rs 6 lakh for the 14 Karnataka-based players in the team. For the first five players (out of the list of 40), a cap of Rs. 4 lakh has been decided, with the other Rs. 2 lakh to be spent on the remaining 9 players. A window has been left open for the big bucks, with the 3 non-Karnataka players, to whom no budget constraints shall apply.

(Of course, for non-Indians, understanding a lakh may get hard. Concentrating on all my knowledge of numbers, I have been able to recollect that 10 lakh = 1 million! I hope that is what it is!)

Yeah, this should be fun and exciting to watch unfold! Yeah, this should help IPL in some manner! Yeah, at least BRC and Dr. Mallya!